chocolate, olive oil, and salt on bread

I may have mentioned before that I read cookbooks.  It may be an odd behavior but I get enjoyment from it.  I saw in the New York Times where they had recommended some cook books by resturanters but cooking for the home.  One was The Family Meal:  Home Cooking with Ferran Adria.  I started calling this my picture book because every step is documented with pictures.  I thought it was fun and I enjoyed the ideas of the combinations.  Is it easy to follow?  I am not sure because I took the ingredient list for chocolate and olive oil on bread and played.  I did not even look at the quantities.  My impression though wat that if you were confident in the kitchen you could easily follow the directions.  If not, you might feel overwhelmed.  

I do know that this recipe will be on that I come back to.  Ferran Adria says it comes from the Catalonia area of Spain.  It was lovely with a cup of tea after work.

Chocolate, olive oil, and salt on bread

Note:  adapted from Family Meal:  Home Cooking with Ferran Adria.  This is for one person.

2 tablespoons grated dark chocolate, at least 60 percent cocoa but you want somethint that tastes good to you.

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 one finger pinch of salt

one slice of bread, homemade if possible, artisan.  I used a sourdough oatmeal that I had made this morning.  It was very sour.

Toast bread on both sides under a broiler or in a toaster oven.  Spoon the chocolate over one side of the bread and continue to heat just until melted.  Pull out of the heat.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Serve with a cup of tea or coffee.

This reminded me a lot of a chocolate croissant without being quite so rich or greasy.  I enjoyed the similarities and like this much better.

mashed potato polenta pizza

That polenta I talked about yesterday became polenta pizza.  When gluten was first cut out of my Beloved's  diet, he wanted pizza and the pizza crust just was never right.  This was our solution.  You might actually call it a polenta tart.  Only when it is cold is it edible with fingers.  Otherwise, you really need a fork.  But it is tasty.  I really do not care for normal pizza so this is all good.

He has been wanting it again recently and there were a lot of leftovers from Thanksgiving.  I had chili sauce with rabbit in it from a rabbit dish I have not had a chance to post about.  There was a lot of mashed potatoes.  The request was for shepherd's pie.  I made fresh potatoes for the pie.  The chili sauce went into a red sauce for this pizza and pasta.  It became very smokey and spicey.  Nice with the polenta.  

Polenta Mashed Potato Pizza

2 cups cooked polenta

2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

4 to 8 ounces bacon or pancetta, chopped into small rectangles

2 cups or to your taste mashed potatoes

2 to 4 tablespoons pine nuts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

On a baking sheet, pizza pan, or pizza stone, put down a piece of parchament paper to cover and then smear with the oil.  Spread the polenta in a thin round over it.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Put the bacon in a pan over medium heat.  You will want it about half cooked.

When the polenta is done, take it out of the oven.

Smear with the red sauce.  Then dollop with mash potatoes.  Sprinkle the bacon over it and then the pine nuts.

Bake for another 20 minutes.

If you serve this straight out of the oven, it will act more like a bowl of polenta with lot of crunchies.  Very yummy but not what you think of as pizza.

If you can wait even ten minutes, this will hold its shape better.

We usually have one serving that is more similar to a bowl of polenta because we cannot wait and then another that is more like a slice of pizza.  

easy polenta

We really like polenta around here but the making of it has been compared to making napalm.  Sticky hot burning stuff flying through the kitchen.  And then the pan!  It can be difficult to wash.  But I was on The Merry Gourmet blog and she mentioned making grits in the slow cooker.  I had to try it with polenta.  This is a snap.

Polenta

1/2 cup polenta

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup hempmilk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

water

Find a heat proof container, like a pyrex bowl, that can sit in your slow cooker with room around it.  In that bowl, mix the polenta, salt, hempmilk, and cream.  Place in the slow cooker.

Pour water between the pyrex and slow cooker insert until it comes half way up the side of the pyrex dish.  Cook on low for eight hours or longer.

Server hot.  With a bit of butter if you wish.

When we make gluten free pizza, we find that our favorite crust is polenta so we actually have a polenta tart.  Making polenta this way really makes it much easier.

pumpkin ice cream

The last time I was making ice cream, I asked My Beloved what type he would like.  He said pumpkin.  I was thinking that he would want vanilla.  He said the mix before I froze it was a slow tango on his tongue.  I do not know if it is really that good but there is no reason to have pumpkin ice cream out anymore!

Pumpkin Ice Cream

2 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 can condensed milk

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups cream

Put everything in a pot except the cream.  Cook a bit of the liquid off over low heat.  This can become naplam type stuff so be careful.  

I was using roasted pumpkin puree which was a bit runny.  You would not have to do this with canned.  I also used my immersion blender to make sure there were not lumps.

Take the pumpkin mixture off the heat.  Mix in the cream.  Cool and freeze by the directions for your machine.

I personally poured everything into a very large pyrex.  Mixed well and stuck it in the freezer.  That is how hard this is.

Yes.  This is the picture I got of the ice cream once it froze.  The pretty scoops of ice cream got eaten before any pictures were taken.  This is a winner.  Maybe you can get pretty pictures

roasted turkey

I am the crazy person who thinks roasting a turkey is easy.  Maybe that is because for many years I cooked two on Thanksgiving.  One for the store my Beloved managed and one for home.  He liked this Thanksgiving holiday.  He did not have to work any of it!

So how do I do it.  I listened to a radio show over twenty years ago in New Orleans and have been doing it this way since.

Roasted Turkey

1 turkey or turkey breast, thawed

1 pound softened butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

4 clove to one head minced garlic

1/2 to 1 minced onion

1 tablespoon rosemary or to taste

1 tablespoon sage or to taste

1 tablespoon thyme or to taste.

1 orange, sliced

1 apples, sliced

1 onion, sliced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

In a bowl, put butter, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, rosemary, sage, and thyme.

Mix together.

Rinse the turkey.  Make sure the giblets are taken out if you are using a whole turkey.  With the breast side up, put the turkey in your roasting pan (or in this case, very large cast iron skillet).  Work you fingers betweent he skin and the meat.  You are creating a pocket.  In this pocket, you are going to put as much of the butter mixture as you possible can.  I smear what I cannot fit or clean my hands off on the outer skin.

If I am using a whole turkey, I put the orange, apple, and onion inside the cavity and the extra around it.  A breast of turkey, I put the orange, apple, and onion around.

Put the turkey in the oven.  Close the door.  Turn the heat down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Roast for 20 minutes a pound.  Keep the door of the oven closed.  Do not baste.  Do not fuss.  

My turkey comes out every time.  The key is the butter and having a thawed turkey.

Sorry there are no pictures of it roasted.  I was dealing with rabbit and making tortillas at that point!